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Medical Officers of the Army of India.

(c ) EXPERIMENT IN WHICH THE INJECTION OF A DOUBLE MINIMAL
LETHAL DOSE OF COBRA-VENOM WAS FOLLOWED BY THE ADMIN-
ISTRATION OF ANTIVENENE.

   Experiment VI. —A fowl received a double minimal lethal dose of dry
cobra-venom. Twenty minutes later a dose of 1 c.c. of antivenene was
administered, followed by three more doses of 0.5 C.C. during the course of
the following two hours, all the doses being introduced at the same site as the
venom.

   Symptoms of intoxication appeared about half an hour after the injection
of the venom, and death occurred two hours later.

(d ) EXPERIMENTS IN WHICH THE ANTIVENENE WAS ADMINISTERED PRE-
VIOUS TO THE INJECTION OF COBRA-VENOM.

   Experiment VII. —A fowl received 2.5 c.c. of antivenene in four doses
during the course of one day. On the following day a minimal lethal dose of
cobra-venom was administered in the opposite leg without inducing any symp-
toms whatever. Six days later the administration of another minimal lethal
dose of venom was followed by the usual symptoms of intoxication and death.

   Experiment VIII. —A fowl was treated with 2.5 c.c. of antivenene in four
doses. On the following day it received a double minimal lethal dose of dry
cobra-venom in the opposite leg.

   Symptoms of intoxication came on during the course of the succeeding
night, and continued to be well marked during the next day, but after this
complete recovery ensued.

   A week after the administration of the antivenene another double minimal
lethal dose of venom was administered, and was followed by the usual symptoms
and death.

   We have here a series of eight experiments in which liquid antivenene
was employed in connection with minimal and double minimal lethal doses of
cobra-venom, and the fact that in four of these, including one case in which
the dose of venom was a double minimal lethal one, symptoms of intoxication
were either entirely suppressed or recovered from, affords conclusive evidence
that the material does really possess antidotal properties. The data also shows
that it differs from remedies such as bleaching powder and gold chloride in
acting as an antidote, not merely when administered so as to come into direct
contact with the venom at the site of introduction, but also after absorption
into the circulation has taken place. Indeed, it would appear that it is after
absorption into the circulation that its activity is mainly exerted, for of the four
cases in which it was administered after the introduction of minimal lethal doses
of venom, the only one in which recovery ensued was one in which it had been
administered distally, and in two other cases of recovery after minimal and
double minimal lethal doses of venom it had not only been administered distally,